SMOKING GUN

2 months ago

Video Released of White Man Shooting at 14-Year-Old Black Teen Who Asked for Directions

Video of 53-year-old Jeffrey Ziegler attempting to shoot 14-year-old Brennan Walker, a black teen who approached the man’s front door to ask for directions last April, was released Thursday in the midst of Ziegler’s trial for attempted murder. The video footage shows Walker approaching the front door and standing outside before suddenly sprinting away. Ziegler emerges seconds later, attempts to fire, then steadies himself and fires a shot before returning inside his home. Ziegler has repeatedly insisted that he slipped and accidentally fired on Walker. As The Daily Beast previously reported, Ziegler also claims that his wife believed Walker was trying to break in—despite Walker doing nothing more than patiently standing at the door.

“I got to the house, and I knocked on the lady’s door. Then she started yelling at me and she was like, ‘Why are you trying to break into my house?’ I was trying to explain to her that I was trying to get directions to Rochester High,” Walker told Fox2 at the time. “And she kept yelling at me. Then the guy came downstairs, and he grabbed the gun, I saw it and started to run. And that’s when I heard the gunshot.” The Oakland Press notes that the video could cast “serious doubt” in the minds of jurors, who viewed the video Wednesday. That’s what happened to Detective Shawn Pace, who testified that “When I saw that video, my thought process switched...I knew which direction I had to go. I was shocked.” After viewing it a second time, he said, he was “charged up, because I was offended by what I had seen.” The trial is expected to conclude Friday.